What should we do about grandma? Why is she so cranky and forgetful? These questions set in motion a series of emotional conflicts for three generations of a family in Coal Creek Theater of Louisville's production of "Close Ties."

Three daughters arrive for a visit at the family's summer home in The Berkshires, each bringing her own drama and old baggage to a situation that triggers each family member to retreat into juvenile reactivity. All the while they are working on accepting the increasing Alzheimer's symptoms exhibited by the family matriarch, Josephine.

The adult children in the play are Connie, compassionate and passive; Anna, who has deliberately left her family behind, indicating trouble in paradise, and Evelyn, an angry and self-absorbed graduate student. Their younger brother, Thayer, stomps the floor and plays air guitar to relieve his stress dealing with his grandmother.

Bess, mother to the four and daughter of Josephine, is full of self-doubt. Watson, her husband, is working out in an adjacent cottage and just wants to solve problems -- quickly. And then there is Josephine, who is stubborn but also has wisdom to deliver. Finally, into the complicated family dynamic walks the uninvited Ira, who is inexplicably in love with Evelyn.

The performances in "Close Ties" were inconsistent. Some acting was quite fine, but at other times I felt I was waiting for the actors to just remember their lines. More than anything else, in many interactions, the characters weren't really listening to each other, and so the evening offered a veneer of actors sometimes showing their character instead of becoming their character.

On the other hand, while the script deals with the topical subjects of aging and the self-centeredness of youth, it doesn't offer characters who are really developed enough for them to be much more than simple character studies.

For instance, we know that Bess is a people-pleaser, but there isn't much in the script to lend insight into her character except that she's the obvious result of a domineering mother. Lots of folks grow up with domineering mothers, and the result is not automatically subservience, so the cause-effect relationship that is a major part of the action found in true family dramas is assumed in this play rather than fleshed out.

The whole script is this way. It leans on assumptive cause to affect relationships rather than showing us the real reasons for the character behavior. This can make for thin performances, even from the best actors, because they have to bring to a role so much material not found in the script.

"Close Ties" does offer some good performances, especially from Rachel Cohen-Birzer, who turns in a performance with much emotional truth despite having to wrangle with a pretty unlikable character who has a meltdown filled with self-hatred and self-pity. Tim David also turns in a solid performance as Ira, although I never really know what he sees in Evelyn. Angelica Kalika and Mandy Scott also bring fine work to the show.

Even more disheartening: After fierce arguments and family members wrestling with what to do about their grandmother's condition, the play abruptly ends when Josephine agrees to go to a nursing home.

Much of the play's dialogue and the messages that came out of the matriarch's mouth were warnings about how self-centeredness causes unhappiness. And, yet, the solution and seeming take-away of the play is to conveniently ignore the problem so the rest of the family won't be too inconvenienced in their selfish pursuits.

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